Aligned Assets To Develop GeoStore Spatial Data Warehouse

Aligned Assets and Pitney Bowes Software (PBS) are pleased to announce the technology transfer of PBS’s GeoStore Spatial Data Warehouse to the Woking-based gazetteer specialists.

As of March 2013, all support, account management, billing and future development passed to Aligned Assets, who have expressed their intention to invest extensively in the product.

GeoStore is a geographical data store that enables users to share geographical information across departments and with external organisations. It simplifies the administration, management and the import/publishing of spatial data, allowing this data to be easily integrated into both desktop and browser-based applications.

It is able to import, store, manage and publish common spatial formats such as Shapefiles, DWG and MapInfo TAB, as well as GML, XML and CSV.

Speaking of the transfer, Managing Director of Aligned Assets, Andy Hird said, “We are delighted to add the GeoStore application to our existing range of gazetteer solutions.”

“We have always focused on the corporate use of data in order for customers to make gains in efficiency, and through that save money whilst delivering a better service to the customer. What GeoStore can offer is exactly in line with this philosophy.”

“For existing GeoStore customers this is a very positive development as we are able to draw on our vast experience in developing industry leading software products, an experience from which GeoStore can only benefit.”

James Buckley, Senior Vice President & General Manager Customer Data and Location Intelligence at Pitney Bowes Software added, “We are thrilled to now have a solid future for GeoStore and our GeoStore customers. Aligned Assets brings a wealth of expertise in the spatial data management space and we too believe it is a great fit within the Aligned Assets portfolio”.

Aligned Assets will be engaging directly with every GeoStore customer to determine a development priority list and plans to hold the first user group meeting within the next few months.

For more information visit www.aligned-assets.co.uk/geostore

Aligned Assets Business Data Helping to Locate Unbilled NNDR Properties

Due to the change in legislation surrounding the retention of business rates, Aligned Assets are set to make their business database available to business rates teams across local government.

The new legislation will see local authorities retaining up to 50% of all business rates collected and the Aligned Assets database can assist in locating unbilled businesses and thereby generating new revenue.

Containing over two million records and updated daily by a call centre of 65 people making in excess of six million validation calls each year, the business database is currently used by emergency services to assist in locating 999 calls made in commercial areas, and is also the source of directory information for organisations such as 118 118 and Bing.

Announced on 21st November 2012, the new policy will come into effect on 1st April 2013. According to Brandon Lewis MP, Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government:

“The business rates retention scheme will enable local authorities to retain a large proportion of locally collected business rates to help fund the services they provide, thereby creating a direct link between business rates collected and local authority income, and reducing local authorities’ dependency on central government grants. The scheme will give all councils a strong incentive to go for growth and could add approximately £10 billion to the wider economy by 2020.”

“In 2011/12 there was over £21 billion in business rates after billing reliefs collected from approximately 1.8 million businesses,” explained Managing Director of Aligned Assets Andy Hird. “This equates to an average of £11,500 per business, which means that even if a council was to use our data and locate only one unbilled business, the return on investment would be almost 100%.”

To find out more, visit www.aligned-assets.co.uk/businessdata

ABOUT ALIGNED ASSETS
Aligned Assets are an industry leader in AddressBase, gazetteer and address management solutions. They supply software across the public and private sectors including over 100 Local Authorities, Fire & Rescue Services and Police Forces. In addition to software and data solutions, they offer a complete range of consultancy, training, bespoke development and project management.

Aligned Assets Present a Practical Strategy for Adopting AddressBase Premium

Gazetteer specialists Aligned Assets have released guidance to assist both public sector and private sector organisations in implementing AddressBase Premium from the Ordnance Survey.

With the majority of existing datasets such as AddressPoint, AddressLayer 2 and the NLPG being withdrawn in 2014, the document draws on the necessity for organisations to act sooner rather than later in their migration to AddressBase Premium.

Titled ‘A Practical Strategy for Implementing AddressBase Premium’, the document demonstrates how any organisation can start using AddressBase Premium without the immediate need to change their existing systems over to AddressBase-compatible versions.

It is these existing systems that present the main obstacle to change as they are often large, complex and critical to the organisation, yet will be based on older address datasets or sometimes no structured dataset at all. It is this issue that the document looks to address.

Andy Hird, Managing Director of Aligned Assets, explained more, “The process described involves initially bringing AddressBase Premium into an organisation and access being given to it via a browser based search engine. With this, technical staff can begin to familiarise themselves with the format and structure of the data, whilst non-technical staff can begin to adapt to elements such as UPRNs and property classifications.”

“Once in place, the process would move to using Aligned Assets’ data conversion software, Symphony iExchange, which can take AddressBase Premium and convert it into standard and non-standard formats. In doing so, changes to the AddressBase Premium data can be exported to the non-AddressBase systems, thereby keeping them updated.”

“This gives an organisation the benefits of AddressBase Premium but in a staged and controlled manner that does not result in major upheaval, and buys time for other suppliers to modify their systems to take native AddressBase data.”

‘A Practical Strategy for Implementing AddressBase Premium’ is available as a free download via the Aligned Assets website and is relevant to the emergency services, local and central government, the NHS and organisations across the private sector such as insurance, utilities and banking.

To find out more, visit www.aligned-assets.co.uk or email solutions@aligned-assets.co.uk.

Shared Services Made Easy With Aligned Assets

With a dramatic increase in the number of shared services in local government, gazetteer specialists Aligned Assets have released a shared service version of their award winning gazetteer management system, Symphony iManage.

Designed to allow local authorities to easily manage multiple gazetteers through the same, user-friendly interface, Symphony iManage for shared services respects the GeoPlace requirement to retain separate gazetteer databases, but provides the convenience of working as though they were one.

In addition to Symphony iManage, their Street Naming and Numbering module now also comes complete with a shared service option to allow any street naming and numbering officer to move seamlessly between cases, irrespective of which authority they come from.

The Aligned Assets pricing structure for shared services has also been modified to better represent the economies of scale that shared services are intended to achieve. The pricing is no longer a flat fee per authority, but instead reflects the number of authorities involved and joint contracts or procurement.

“Everything we do at Aligned Assets is focused on providing solutions that people want and delivering them in ways that make them cost effective,” explained Managing Director of Aligned Assets, Andy Hird.

“There are already a number of local authorities benefiting from our shared service solutions, not only from the greater efficiencies created through the software, but also cost savings through the new pricing model.”

To find out more, visit www.aligned-assets.co.uk

ABOUT ALIGNED ASSETS
Aligned Assets are an industry leader in AddressBase, gazetteer and address management solutions. They supply software across the public and private sectors including over 100 Local Authorities, Fire & Rescue Services and Police Forces. In addition to software and data solutions, they offer a complete range of consultancy, training, bespoke development and project management.

Law of Street Naming and Numbering Course Announced by Aligned Assets

Woking, Surrey 3rd December 2012 – Gazetteer Specialists Aligned Assets are pleased to announce the next date for their ever-popular ‘Law of Street Naming and Numbering’ training course. The only course of its kind in the UK, it will be held at Conway Hall in London on Tuesday 29th January 2013 and will be instructed by James Richardson, a trained solicitor with over twenty years of local authority experience. Street naming and numbering is an essential component of local government, playing a crucial role in everything from the collection of council tax through to waste and recycling. The laws governing the street naming and numbering process date back to 1847 and in order for the process to operate correctly and within the confines of the law, understanding the legalities involved is of the utmost importance. The course will examine the various laws such as The Towns Improvement Clauses Act 1847, The Public Health Act 1925, The London Building Acts Amendment Act 1939 and The Local Government Act 1972. In addition to specific legislation, the course will also look at the investigation and prosecution of cases, the role of the Local Government Ombudsman and to which elements of street naming and numbering a charge can be applied. Speaking of the upcoming course, Managing Director of Aligned Assets, Andy Hird said, “This will be the fifth time we’ve run the Law of Street Naming and Numbering training course and we’re proud to say that to date there is a 100% record of attendees rating it either Very Good or Excellent.” “At a time when progressively more councils are looking to charge for street naming and numbering services, it is absolutely critical that the law is understood and it is this course that can provide that knowledge.” To find out more, visit www.aligned-assets.co.uk/events ABOUT ALIGNED ASSETS Aligned Assets are an industry leader in AddressBase, gazetteer and address management solutions. They supply software across the public and private sectors including over 100 Local Authorities, Fire & Rescue Services and Police Forces. In addition to software and data solutions, they offer a complete range of consultancy, training, bespoke development and project management.

Aligned Assets Bring Address Point and NLPG Compatibility to AddressBase Premium

With the release of Symphony Bluelight iExchange, gazetteer specialists Aligned Assets can now offer the emergency services a method by which they can automatically convert AddressBase Premium into Address Point and NLPG (National Land and Property Gazetteer) formats.

Designed to allow the emergency services to start working with AddressBase Premium, without the requirement to wait until other systems have been modernised, Symphony Bluelight iExchange will enable a greater level of data integration, efficiency and joined up working.

As a core component of Aligned Assets’ emergency service corporate gazetteer system, Symphony Bluelight iExchange is designed to work alongside the Symphony Bluelight Gazetteer, which enables full management of AddressBase Premium and the creation of local records, plus Symphony SinglePoint, which provides a series of web services for further integration options.

Many emergency services have systems, such as Command & Control, that still run off address data in either the Address Point or NLPG formats, which means they are currently waiting on these systems to be updated before moving to AddressBase Premium. With AddressBase Premium being the most accurate and up-to-date address data currently available, it is important that they can start using it sooner rather than later.

Symphony Bluelight iExchange allows for changes in a corporate AddressBase gazetteer to be automatically converted to Address Point or NLPG and then exported to other systems at set frequencies – daily, weekly, or even hourly if required.

“Symphony Bluelight iExchange will enable emergency services to have one central source of address data and integrate this data into their third party systems,” explained Andy Hird, Managing Director of Aligned Assets.

“Although Symphony Bluelight iExchange is designed to be fully customisable, Address Point and NLPG formats are common amongst the police, ambulance and fire services, which is why we made the decision to have these integration options as standard.”

“By 2014, all users of Address Point or NLPG will be expected to migrate to one of the AddressBase products, but at least now with the release of Symphony Bluelight iExchange, some of the concerns surrounding this migration have been removed.”

To find out more, visit www.aligned-assets.co.uk/bluelight

ABOUT ALIGNED ASSETS
Aligned Assets are an industry leader in AddressBase, gazetteer and address management solutions. They supply software across the public and private sectors including over 100 Local Authorities, Fire & Rescue Services and Police Forces. In addition to software and data solutions, they offer a complete range of consultancy, training, bespoke development and project management.

ABOUT THE ADDRESSBASE PRODUCTS
AddressBase contains Royal Mail PAF® addresses, both commercial and residential matched to the local authority Unique Property Reference Number (UPRN) and structured in a flat file model. You will be able to link additional information about a property to a single address. It also provides further enhancement to the Royal Mail PAF data by assigning an X and Y coordinate to every address, allowing you to place it precisely on a map, together with a summary classification.

AddressBase Plus contains current properties and addresses sourced from local authorities, Ordnance Survey and Royal Mail matched to the UPRN and structured in a flat file model. It has more records than AddressBase as it includes objects without postal addresses such as places of worship and community centres and objects in multiple occupancy buildings. It also enables you to locate an address or property precisely on a map, by cross referencing to the information in OS MasterMap® products via the OS MasterMap Topography Layer and Integrated Transport Network™ (ITN) Layer Topographic Identifiers (TOID®s).

AddressBase Premium provides the most detailed view of an address and its lifecycle. It contains all the AddressBase Plus information and functionalities, such as the ability to cross reference the information with OS MasterMap products via the OS MasterMap Topography Layer and Integrated Transport Network (ITN) Layer Topographic Identifiers (TOIDs).

But the real benefit of this product is that it provides a range of information relating to an address or property from creation to retirement or demolition. It contains local authority, Ordnance Survey and Royal Mail addresses structured in a relational database model. The product is based around the UPRN, the current (approved) addresses; and alternatives for current addresses (reflecting the changes in addresses); provisional addresses (proposed planning developments) and historic information for addresses (including historic alternatives) where available.

The AddressBase products are created by GeoPlace, a public liability partnership between Local Government Association and Ordnance Survey.

Aligned Assets Customers Dominate for Second Year Running at the GeoPlace Exemplar Awards

Woking, Surrey 30th October 2012 – After dominating the 2011 Exemplar Awards, users of the Aligned Assets gazetteer management system have received countless accolades at the 2012 Awards.

At a ceremony in London to recognise outstanding achievement in the use of local authority address and street gazetteer data, Aligned Assets customers won four out of the six major awards, including London Borough of Harrow being announced the winner of the Overall Exemplar Award.

The London Borough of Harrow had earlier in the day won the Integration Award for their innovative project that saw the use of gazetteer data significantly increased across the authority. In a vote by all 320 delegates, it was this project that was considered to have achieved the most in terms of gazetteer usage and so awarded the top prize.

Other victories included Worthing and Adur Councils who won the Best Example of Street Naming and Numbering Policy Implementation Award, Bath and North East Somerset Council who won the Services Award and Inverclyde Council who were Highly Commended in the Scottish Gazetteer Custodian of the Year category.

The London Borough of Enfield was Highly Commended for Street Naming and Numbering Policy and was also recognised as Best in Region for both Address and Street data. In addition to Enfield, Aligned Assets customers won a further six Best in Region Awards and a total of 34 were given Gold Awards for either their address or street updating.

“All of us at Aligned Assets are delighted for those customers whose hard work and dedication over the past twelve months has been formally recognised,” said Managing Director of Aligned Assets Andy Hird. “Although we would acknowledge that having great software helps, it really is down to the people using that software to make the difference.”

The Exemplar Awards took place during the ‘Everything Happens Somewhere Conference’, which was organised by GeoPlace and held on 25th October at Friends House in London.

To find out more, visit www.aligned-assets.co.uk

ABOUT ALIGNED ASSETS
Aligned Assets are an industry leader in AddressBase, gazetteer and address management solutions. They supply software across the public and private sectors including over 100 Local Authorities, Fire & Rescue Services and Police Forces. In addition to software and data solutions, they offer a complete range of consultancy, training, bespoke development and project management.